Mavic Air: DJI launches ‘ultraportable’ drone

Image copyrightDJIImage caption The Mavic Air is said to be half the size of the Mavic Pro

DJI has unveiled the Mavic Air drone, a successor to its top-selling Mavic Pro that is smaller, lighter and faster as well as promising more advanced obstacle-avoidance tech.

There are, however, trade-offs: it has a shorter flight time and cannot travel as far from its operator.

DJI is the top-selling consumer drone-maker and recently saw a major rival, GoPro, drop out of the market.

Despite the advances, the Air will be sold for a lower price than the Pro.

It will be released on 28 January for $799 in the US and £769 in the UK.

That is $200/£330 less than the Pro’s base model, which remains on sale.

Image copyrightDJIImage caption DJI compared the size of the Mavic Air to that of a smartphone

While that may make it more attractive to new buyers, one film-maker questioned whether the firm had done enough to convince existing users to upgrade.

“For it to attract current Mavic Pro owners, it will need to offer improved video quality to tempt them as they would already be invested in multiple spare batteries, which won’t be compatible with this new model, as is the case for every new model that DJI brings out,” Philip Bloom told the BBC.

Image copyrightDJIImage caption DJI said it had designed a new ventilation system to keep the drone’s components cool

Both the Air and the Pro film 4K video at up to 30 frames per second.

But the Air’s peak image capture rate is 100 Megabits per second (Mbps), which in theory should trump the quality that the Pro’s 60Mbps delivers.

In addition, DJI said the new model can capture slower-motion video at 1080p high definition resolution, and also has an improved anti-shake gimbal mechanism to keep footage smooth.

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption DJI said that the Mavic Pro had been its bestselling model to date